Downing Street moved last night to reassure the Ulster Unionist leadership that it remains Mr Tony Blair's view that Sinn Fein and the IRA "are linked, and two sides of the same coin."
The move came after earlier comments by the Prime Minister's official spokesman had been interpreted in some unionist circles in Belfast as signalling a possible shift of emphasis in the British government's approach to the impasse over the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons.
At the same time Mr Blair's spokesman said the Prime Minister, having held lengthy talks with both Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness, "believes they are doing what they can to push this process on."
While satisfied with No 10's clarification of the position, a spokesman for Mr David Trimble last night made it clear that the First Minister "certainly does not share" Mr Blair's assessment of the Sinn Fein leadership's position.
Unionist anxieties had been raised by Mr Blair's official spokesman's response to a radio interview yesterday in which Mr McGuinness again firmly ruled out any IRA "gesture" on weapons decommissioning. Pressed to explain why, Mr McGuinness told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I'll give you a good reason. The IRA won't do it. That's the reason."
When questioned about this later, Mr Blair's spokesman said: "It was clear when the Prime Minister met Gerry Adams [on Monday] that as far as they are concerned they are speaking for Sinn Fein, and what the agreement says is that they have to use their influence in whatever way they can to push forward on all the issues, including decommissioning. The question is whether you think Martin McGuinness and Sinn Fein are doing what they can, and our view is that they are."
The official spokesman was later asked if this meant the British government now accepted that Sinn Fein and the IRA were not one and the same and, if the party was doing what was required under the agreement, how Mr Trimble could justify continuing to refuse to establish the executive.
Making it clear that there was no change in Mr Blair's view of the relationship between the two, the official spokesman ventured that he did not think Mr McGuinness had meant in yesterday's interview to say anything significant. The point was that having spoken to Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness, the Prime Minister "believes they are doing what they can to push this process on. The Prime Minister thinks that from David Trimble and from Sinn Fein there is still the goodwill and the determination to push this thing on. It is still a question of how you do it."
While repeating the British government's interpretation of the Belfast Agreement that "there has got to be full decommissioning within two years" the spokesman said he believed there was "nobody engaged in the process who doesn't want it to pass," adding that the imperative was to move forward on all fronts to build the necessary confidence between the parties.